Unexpected
by impossibuddy
Summary: Marinette finally confesses her feelings to Adrien. Adrien finds something out that he really wasn't supposed to. Admiration falls apart, will they be able to recognize their true feelings for each other in the end? I dunno, B, read it and find out.
1. Chapter 1

Hi! I've decided to write this Miraculous Ladybug fan fiction! This is dedicated to my friend Delaney because it was going to be a birthday present as a short story but then I didn't write it in time. So I thought, hell why not make a fully fledged fan fiction am I right?! So here we are. I hope I portrayed all of the characters to the extent that they are in the show. Also if its not very good I apologize, this is my first fan fiction. I hope you enjoy! :)

* * *

Adrien crumpled up a paper and threw it across his room.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to write Ladybug a letter, Plagg."

"Why?"

"I want to confess my feelings for her, and I thought that maybe if I write it down she would take is seriously. But I can't seem to get it right"

"Why don't you just tell her in person, I'm sure it'll work fine."

Immediately after he said that, Plagg slowly ate a piece of Camembert, with his mouth full he started,

"What changes-" he chewed the cheese, "about it now anyway? Why are you going to confess now?"

"During class today, you were in my locker eating cheese, it got _all over_ my stuff, have I mentioned how disgusting that is?"

"I'm _sorry _for enjoying cheese!"

"Anyway, in class today Juleka confessed that she was in love with Rose and it was so inspiring, I want to do that to Ladybug. I want a moment like that. I want her to feel that beautiful energy."

"Oh, well I'm sure you'll figure it out." Adrien put his pen away,

"This isn't working, I'm just going to tell her in person."

"And _when_ are you planning on doing this, Loverboy?"

"I'm not quite sure, probably the next time we meet to fight one of Hawkmoth's victims."

* * *

Marinette and Alya ran out of the school, this was right after the end of the school day, also right after Juleka had confessed her feelings to Rose.

"I _am_ gonna do it, Alya!"

"Girl, you've told me that _so many_ times before, how am I supposed to know you're not going to bail at the last second?" Alya gave Marinette a skeptical look.

"It's different this time, love is in the air!"

"Yeah, but that doesn't change _you._"

"Trust me, ok. I'm gonna pull through this time. Come on, I have something to show you at my house."

Marinette grabbed Alya's wrist and started running towards her house.

"Damn girl, you're strong."

They got to the house and go up to Marinette's room. She revealed a dress on her mannequin, it was a soft baby blue and covered in delicate lace. It must have taken Marinette forever to get the stitching just right.

"Woah girl, did you make this? Like, _just _for this?"

"Well I was planning on making it for a while, but I thought that this would be a great thing to wear it for."

"Won't it be weird that you'll be the only one dressing up?"

"Yeah, that's where I need your help. I was thinking that we could get all the girls in our class to dress up, but keep it a secret from the guys to surprise everyone."

"I'll tell everyone we know! They'll all agree I'm sure of it, they'd love it if you and Adrien got together. And by everyone I mean everyone good, all of our friends."

"Thanks Alya, I know I can count on you!"

She smiled, she was grateful to have such a dedicated friend.

"You better not get cold feet tomorrow, right now I gotta go, see ya girl!"

After that, Alya went downstairs, gave her salutations to Mari's parents, and left. As soon as Alya was gone Tikki came out from the inside of Marinette's purse.

"Marinette, are you sure you need to do this gesture? Why can't you just write him another letter? What if he doesn't want to be put on the spot?"

"I know I don't _need to_, Tikki, but the bigger gesture, the harder it'll be to back out."

"I guess that makes some sort of sense"

"Man, I didn't even think about how he would think about being in front of everyone. Tikki! Maybe this is a bad idea, maybe I shouldn't do it anymore."

"I'm sorry, Marinette. I shouldn't have asked you about that he's going to be fine. Besides, you can't back out now, right?"

Tikki gave Marinette a look, and they both started laughing.

* * *

Alya texted Marinette that the plan was ready, and sent her a picture of her in a dress, it was pink which wasn't a color she usually wore, she looked adorable. Marinette got ready for the school day, there wasn't any akuma to fight the night before, so she actually got a decent amount of sleep and she got up at the right time, a bit earlier than usual so that she could dress up. She got ready for school and put on her special dress, and decided to let her hair down for once. She made sure to keep the hair ties on her, just in case she needed to become Ladybug. She looked different, but in a good way, in a great way.

"Tikki, I'm not sure about this… is it too different?"

"You look amazing, Marinette, never doubt that for a second! Everything's going to turn out great!"

Tikki flew down nearby the opening to downstairs, excited to get to school and watch Marinette face her fears. Marinette obeyed her hint and went downstairs. Unfortunately, going downstairs meant that she had to deal with her parents, and all of the questions they would pose about her new appearance. Right as she walked down the stairs, just as suspected...

"Marinette! You look beautiful, look at our little girl! Why are you dressed like this, is it for a boy? If it is than _who_?!"

"Dad, I have a presentation, it's not like that." She didn't want to confess to him the real reason for all of this, because if she was rejected or something went wrong, she didn't want to risk him becoming akumatized again. "Well I've got to go, I don't want to be late!" She ran off, incredibly nervous.

"Tikki, what if I mess this up?!"

"You'll do fine! Why don't you write down what you want to say in a letter and if you can't say it and give that to Adrien."

"Tikki! That's a great idea!" Once she got to the school, a lot earlier than usual, she sat at her desk, she thought, _man. I've never been here this early, I hope I can finish the letter before Adrien gets here, I hope he'll like my confession! _The other students filed into the classroom, each girl looking just as beautiful as the last. Alya walked in with Nino, they were holding hands.

"Girl! You look so adorable! Stand up and give me a twirl!" Marinette stood up like Alya asked, and spun around. As she finished her spin, Adrien walked through the door, they made eye contact. It was like something from a romance movie, Marinette felt like she was about to melt. The bell rang, shattering the romantic aura like fragile glass. Marinette could hardly focus the rest of class between the nerves and what just happened. The butterflies in her stomach were having a party in there.

Adrien hardly noticed that all the girls dressed up until he walked into the class and saw Marinette, he didn't think much of it though. Due to the fact that he hasn't been in public school for that long, he thought that the events were just something he didn't know about. When class was dismissed, he walked down into the main area of the school. It was a big surprise when he felt a tap on his shoulder, it was Marinette.

"A-Adrien… I have… I" She rushed the next of these words, "I have something to tell you!" She was incredibly nervous.

"Ok, what is it that you want to tell me, Marinette?"

Time seemed to stop, everyone was watching them, but all they could see were each other's eyes. Marinette began to say what she had waited so long to tell.

"I-I've had-" Marinette held out the letter as she spoke, the speed that was a mile a minute, the same as the beat of her heart, "I've had a really, _really, REALLY _huge crush on you for such a long time… and… well... I was wondering- I was wondering if you would want to hang out sometime? But not in a friend way, like a-a _date?_"

She did it, after waiting forever, all of the other girls were incredibly surprised and happy for her. Everyone was waiting for Adrien's response.

"Marinette, this is, you are- so sweet!"

He felt incredibly guilty for having to break her heart, especially in front of everyone like this, but he knew he couldn't lie.

"It's just that, well, I think... I think that I'm too busy for a relationship right now,"

it wasn't exactly a lie, because Adrien was very busy, but he would have worked really hard to make time for a relationship. But he had been thinking about if for a long time, if he were to get into a relationship with even Ladybug how would he even have time to fit her into his schedule, other than the crime fighting.

"I just have so many things going on, like with my school work and my after school activities, and I feel so horrible for rejecting you, I don't want you to feel that it's anything about you. You're an amazing girl, and you deserve someone who can focus time and energy on you and your relationship. I'm so sorry."

Marinette's face fell, she knew rejection could've happened but she never thought about it too much. The hardest part to her was to actually confess her love to Adrien, but it was so much worse now because she didn't expect to be rejected, she thought that once she poured her heart out everything would turn out great. But it didn't thought _really, why would it be, why would he like me anyway?_ She ran off into the bathroom crying, Alya chased after her to console her. Hawkmoth was ready to cast down an akuma to go and vilify Marinette. He casted out the aggravated butterfly onto Paris, unfortunately for him, Alya was amazing at consoling Marinette.

"Girl, this isn't your fault, you finally confessed to him and that's an amazing thing to do! And so what if Adrien doesn't have time to give you the love that you deserve. It's not like he hates you, you can still be friends! Now you can move on from him and onto someone else, someone that _does_ have time time to treat you like a goddess, like the goddess that you really, _truly _are."

"Yeah," Marinette sniffled, "thanks Alya."

She still felt pretty bad, but definitely not as bad. Adrien felt really guilty about making her upset, though, He tried to soften the blow as much as he could but it didn't seem to work. _I just hope she can forgive me for this. _Adrien left the school, because at the time of her confession it was time to leave. He felt really bad about everything, and going to his cold, empty home wasn't going to help him feel any better. As Alya comforted Marinette, Hawkmoth was up in his room, ready to impose his akuma. But Marinette was already starting to feel better from the comfort of her friends, so her emotions weren't strong enough to prey on. Plus, Adrien would've been in danger if Marinette was akumatized. Part of him was relieved because Adrien wouldn't be in danger, but he could possibly be a victim to the akuma that Hawkmoth had sent out. Fortunately for him, it didn't take long for the akuma to find another target.


	2. Chapter 2: Dematurer

Rose and Juleka had just gotten into a relationship, so they decided to have dinner together and come out to Rose's parents. They had already done so to Juleka's mom, they wanted to get the whole mess over with at the beginning.

"I'm scared, Juleka. I don't know what my parents' stances are on homosexuality are."

"I'm sure they will be accepting, they love you."

"Yeah, you're right."

They both walked into the house together. Dinner started off fine, and both of Rose's parents were totally cool with the relationship, but then it was time for them to leave. As they left Rose's mother started crying. Rose's father asked her what was wrong. She picked up a family photo off of a mantle in their house,

"I- I just can't believe she's growing up so much! She's _dating_!" Hawkmoth was ecstatic for this emotional situation, the already released akuma went straight into the house and Rose's mother was enveloped with Hawkmoth's magic. The butterfly flew right into the picture she was holding.

"Isn't it so _awful_ that your sweet little children grow up?" His voice was as smooth, as it usually was. "I am Hawkmoth, and I have given you the power to quickly reverse the aging of anyone you wish, _dematurer_"

"Thank you, Hawkmoth." She transformed into a terrifyingly loving appearance, somewhat similar to a certain akumatized science teacher. She folded up the picture that was akumatized and put it into her pocket. In addition to the power she has a weapon, a baby bottle, which shot out the power. Once someone was shot with it they were frozen for a couple seconds before they started to de-age.

"I am dematurer, nobody will ever need to grow up now!"

* * *

Marinette was with her friends, they were about to fulfill their plans to cheer her up. These plans weren't the original plans, of course. They originally had formed celebratory plans, because they really believed that Adrien would accept and they would celebrate this new relationship. The town signaled an akuma alert, Marinette's friends all ran to get to safe areas of the city. Marinette ran over behind a building to transform into Ladybug. She catapulted herself across the city with her yoyo. The effects of the akumitization weren't clear for the first bit of time when Rose's mom was akumatized, but as Ladybug started to notice there were less elderly and adults the farther she passed throughout the city.

_What happened to all of the other citizens from town? _Ladybug thought to herself, she also thought, _where is chat?_

Chat on the other hand had just transformed and was on his way to help fight. He had also come to the decision that he wanted confess to Ladybug, incredibly unfortunate timing for him, considering he had just rejected that same girl earlier that morning.

"So, m'lady, where is this akumatizee?"

"I'm not sure yet, but she must be nearby."

They both ran towards the Eiffel Tower in hopes of getting a good vantage point to see the rest of the city. As they stood at the top, instead of scanning the city Chat was staring at Ladybug. He was deciding when to confess his true feelings to her, no games, no playful flirtations, just the truth. He was about to tell her, about to vomit out all of his love right onto her.

"Ladybug… I want t-"

"I see her! Right over there! Let's go, I want to get this over with."

They both started going towards the fight.

"What? You have somewhere to be?"

Saying this only made Chat more nervous, he would still confess even if she wasn't in a good mood. He had made up his mind on confessing for real, and he would explain the extent of his feelings no matter what.

"Hasn't been a good day."

"Aw I'm sorry about that m'lady, maybe I could make it better." He winked.

"Alright," She laughed "sure."

"I mean and if _I _can't make it better, than I'm sure some good ol' fashioned crime fighting will do the trick."

He smiled at her, she did nothing in return. They finally got close to dematurer, her power wasn't nearly as menacing as some of the other villians that they have fought before. This caused the pair to relax a little bit, maybe a bit too much. She was looking throughout the city for her daughter, she was going to use her power on her daughter. Ladybug started a plan in a whisper,

"Chat you should sneak up on her, the akuma is probably in the bottle so you can use your cataclysm on it."

"Alright m'lady!"

Chat was surprised Ladybug gave him that much responsibility, she usually made plans more tailored to the both of them working together. He didn't want to mess it up, she was trusting him with a lot. He snuck up behind her, ready to grab the bottle. Suddenly, the akumatized spun around and shot him with her powers. Chat gasped in surprise, and then he realized what was going to happen to him. He turned to Ladybug and she looked back at him with a look of mixed disappointment, surprise, and regret. Chat knew he let her down.

"Alright well I guess we have to come up with a new plan."

"I'm sorry."

"Be quiet, I'm thinking."

Chat thought that she'd use her lucky charm, but she clearly wasn't going to do it at the moment. He thought she might've forgotten she hasn't used it yet. But he didn't say anything, she told him not to. _You always have to listen to the older people_, he thought. _Wait? Older people? _Chat realized the power was already taking effect much faster than he expected.

"...Ladybug I don't want to bother you, but I think we should hurry up before I get any younger."

The powers must have been working fast, because Chat's voice was already changing a little bit.

"What do you-" she turned around, "oh, that. Well, I mean I guess I'll use my lucky charm now then, all right. Lucky charm!"

The thing that came out was a fishing rod.

"What am I going to do with this!?"

If she was clear-headed, or if Chat wasn't 12 years old at the moment, they would've figured out that the akumatized object was in the woman's pocket, but they couldn't piece that together. I was almost comical that she couldn't figure it out, proving the extent of the effect that Adrien's rejection had on her.

"I smell something fishy!"

"That wasn't even funny."

"Am I ever?"

The line between humor and offence was fairly blurred, Ladybug didn't take time to figure out young Chat's comment and instead started intently at the fishing rod as if it would tell her what to do.

"Maybe you have to fish something off of her?"

The ring beeped, the cataclysm had taken place a couple minutes ago. The beeping distracted Chat, he acted like an actual cat. His current state caused him to act accordingly.

"I guess it's worth a shot."

She drew back the rod, casted it, and it hooked onto the jacket pocket. A hard yank pulled the pocket off the jacket, the picture fluttered out, dematurer didn't even notice that it was gone. Chat dove down and snatched it, tore it with his tiny, child hands. Ladybug opened the yoyo and captured the akuma, threw the fishing rod up into the air and brought out the miraculous ladybugs. The city went back to the way it was, as usual, and Chat aged back to normal. Ladybug started to run off as her ring beeped its second beep, she had 3 minutes. Chat grabbed her wrist,

"M'lady, wait! I really need to tell you something!"

"Better hurry up because you've only got a couple minutes until you transform back."

"Look, I know I make all these silly puns and joke around about this all the time, but I really like you, seriously. I know you want to keep everything secret but that doesn't mean we can't, I don't know, hang out or something? We don't have to get together or anything. Just- I'm sorry I don't talk about how I feel very often. I just wanted you to know everything. Man, this-this doesn't even scratch the surface of my emot-"

Both miraculouses broke the monologue, two minutes before Ladybug's identity was shown, one for Chat.

"Are you seriously confessing to me? Today?! Today of all days!"

"What's wrong wi-"

"What did you think you'd accomplish by doing this?! Do you really think we'd just magically get together after you acted a little bit more serious?! We will never get together, and I will never love you! We have to protect our identities, just move on already, chase a mouse you can catch."

Chat's eyes were wet, he blinked and ran home. Ladybug left the same. She felt bad for what she said, she felt really bad. She didn't realize how harsh she was being, she felt so rejected from earlier and so angry that he had decided to do what she tried earlier that day, that he thought that he'd be successful.

* * *

When Chat got to his house he nearly broke right through the window. He transformed back to Adrien right before he smashed into it, he fell into a bush. Plagg flew out of the ring and Adrien climbed into the window that was already open instead of smashing into another one.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

Adrien was clearly not in a talking state, he was incredibly upset.

"I always screw everything up! I'm not even a good superhero, I always get affected by the akumatized person's powers, my fighting doesn't even amount to what Ladybug can do, and I was stupid enough to believe I was good enough for her, that she would actually love me!"

"Don't say that! You're amazing, you're Adrien Agreste! Everybody loves you!"

"Nobody loves the real me, everyone loves the attractive model boy, well he doesn't exist. I don't even know who the 'real me' is anyway. Whoever he is Ladybug hates him, that's for sure."

"She doesn't hate you! She's just upset, give her time, like cheese- its best when given time to age."

"Enough with the cheese! This is serious! I'm really upset right now, do you even understand that?! Do you even care about anybody but yourself and your cheese?!"

"I don't know how to handle this! I don't know how to handle a holder like you! The other ones didn't talk to me all that much."

"You don't have to handle me, just pretend you care, just like everyone else."

"I _do _care about you! Plenty of people do! Your friends do!"

"They don't even know me. _I _don't even know me!" A few minutes of silence passed.

"Plagg, I'm sorry, I want to be alone right now."

"What are you-"

Adrien took off his ring and put it into its case. He sat down on his bed and just sat there for a while, nothing was planned for the rest of the day which was unusual. His phone rang, he didn't answer, it was too late to hang out with friends, but even if it weren't he wouldn't have done so anyway.


	3. Chapter 3: 2:36

A/N: Ok so the italicized stuff is Adrien's thoughts, I'm not sure if its confusing or anything. Also if you think I work fast, I don't lol I already wrote this when I published the first two chapters and I was nervous about it being bad. But then I was fuck it y'know, I'll publish it. :)

* * *

Adrien opened the ring's container and put it on his finger, Plagg flew out.

"Huh? Oh… I thought you might've quit or something, kid."

"Of course not. I need your help though."

"Ok. Jeez, what time is it?"

Plagg looked at the clock.

"2:36 am?! What do you need help with at 2:36?!"

"I couldn't sleep. I want to go into the atelier." (A/N: The fandom page said that that's what his dad's room was called so that's what it is)

"Why would you want to do that?"

"I feel like there's something I don't know about, something important in there."

"And you want me to help you break in?"

"Yeah. That's why I waited until it was late."

"2:36 am late! Isn't that _way _later than it needed to be?!" The line between sarcasm and annoyance in Plagg's words was fairly unclear.

"Better safe than sorry."

"Ugh."

Plagg flew into the door handle and unlocked Adrien's bedroom door. Plagg wondered why they had never done that before.

"What should we do about the security cameras?"

"I could fly through the wall and disable them? Maybe that'll work."

"Thank you so much Plagg, I really appreciate this"

"I better get a lot of cheese for this."

They looked at each other, even though that was a joke it was still a nice moment. Adrien looked like a mess, but somehow he didn't look as bad as one would expect. Considering that he was rejected and torn apart by the only girl he loved, the only girl he wanted to love. He was terrified, he had never done anything bad before. If he was a prisoner in his own home, why not take a look around the place.

The lights turned off of the security cameras. Adrien went into the atelier, which Plagg already unlocked for him. The room was as empty as Adrien expected, it was a pretty accurate representation of his father. He looked around the room but nothing seemed to be there. _Seriously? Why would he stay in here all day if there isn't anything interesting? _Adrien looked around again, felt defeated and looked up at the painting of his mother. _She would know what to do, she would have helped me with this._ He realized he had seen his father studying it before too, _but why? _ He remembered his father trying to cover up his actions before, _but what was he doing_. This was all so confusing to Adrien, what could his father be hiding? _Ladybug would know how to figure this out, but it's not like I can tell her, that would risk my identity._ His father usually stood right in front of the painting, and Adrien knew the painting swung open to reveal a safe. _There must be something more than just a safe, there has to be. _ Adrien started to pace on the raised area of the room by the painting. As he took his steps he noticed that a certain area felt different, as if it had moved before or something. The area that felt different was directly in front of the painting. _Maybe this leads somewhere, how do I get it to lead me there? _

"Ugh! Why does this have to be so complicated!"

_Shoot I shouldn't have said that out loud. _

Adrien was incredibly frustrated and exhausted. He leaned against the wall in front of him, but he realized it wasn't the wall his hands were touching, it was the painting, and his fingers weren't just resting on it, they had pressed part of the painting in._What?! _The pressed in parts of the painting were triangles, and he realized that there was another spot set for three other fingers, he tentatively placed his hand up to those as well. The ground beneath him spun downwards and opened up into Hawkmoth's lair. Adrien couldn't believe what he was seeing. _This isn't what I think it is, it's just an odd extension of the house- yeah an extension. _He thought this until he saw the butterflies. A sense of panic ran over him, this couldn't be true, his father couldn't be. Adrien thought back to when Ladybug proposed that his father might have been Hawkmoth, it was almost too easy to figure it out. This was hiding right under his nose this whole time, he was angry and incredibly upset. Adrien started to sob, the realization and the rejection of the day was just too much. His vision was blurry but in the distant area of the room he noticed something bright, he walked over to it. It was the coffin of his mother, she was down here.

"I'm the last thing you have of her? Yeah, right."

He laughed to himself, a laugh that resulted in a lot more crying. Adrien lowered himself to the floor, his father was a supervillain, he was fighting against his father every day to protect the city that they love. His father was responsible for so much chaotic destruction and emotional trauma to thousands of civilians, not just his own emotional neglect.

He heard a footstep behind him,

"Now, how did you get in here?"

There he was, in all his glory, Gabriel Agreste in the flesh.

"I can't believe you, father."

The intense anger and suffocating feeling in his throat changed the tone of Adrien's words to be shaking with emotion. He stood up to face his father, to face Hawkmoth himself.

"All this time, it was you."

"You don't understand, I'm doing all of this for you, my son!"

"For me?! FOR ME?! Terrorizing the nice civilians of Paris?! Preying on people's emotions so that you can get some nice magic earrings and a pretty little ring?! How, HOW AM I THE MOTIVATION FOR ALL OF THAT?!"

"If you bring the Miraculous of the black cat, and the miraculous of the Ladybug together you get a wish, a wish for anything, anything at all. Once I get those miraculouses I'm going to wish for your mother, I'm going to bring her back to us! She's going to come back!"

Gabriel spoke in a voice that was intended to be firm and calm, but with use, sounded like a madman with the insistence of bringing the dead back to life.

"You can't do that! There must be a price!"

"You need your mother to become happy again, I'm doing this for you!"

"No. _YOU_ need her to be happy."

Adrien's voice began to tremble as his sobs rang through the empty hall.

"I-I just want everything to be normal, I want YOU to be a normal father! I want you to love me, not to buy me things that resemble love, not to revive my mother so that she can love me for you, I want you to love me yourself!"

Even if Adrien had wanted to say anything after that, he couldn't. He was so overcome with emotion he couldn't do anything but cry. Hawkmoth desperately wanted to akumitize him but he knew that it wasn't the time, something deep, deep inside of him told him he couldn't do that to his poor son.

"I suppose you will want to tell everyone my identity now."

In their argument Adrien had wound up on the floor again, he nodded his head in response. Sitting there he looked weak and helpless, he was incredibly distraught.

"You know I can't allow that, right."

The smoothness and coldness of Mr Agreste's words seemed as if he wasn't phased from what his son had said. He kneeled down to be level with Adrien, as he spoke he placed his hand under Adrien's chin and tilted his head upwards.

"You cannot go telling everyone who I am, can you. You know, I think that bad little boys that sneak around at night should be punished, right. I don't think a liability like you should be allowed out places, places like school, places where you could talk."

"I won't! If-if you let me leave, I swear over mom, I swear I won't tell anyone. I won't tell anyone if you let me leave this house, please I can't stay here I can't do this. I can't live with a supervillain!"

This was not what Gabriel wanted, but he still had a tiny bit of humanity in him. Adrien was sitting with his back against the wall. It was as if Gabriel had forgotten that Adrien was his son, he grabbed him by his neck and pushed him against the wall.

"Do not. Tell. A soul. I will know, and you don't want to know what I will do."

He held Adrien there for another second and then released sharply leaving his son gasping on the floor. Adrien didn't want to know what he would do, but Hawkmoth didn't know what he'd do either, he just hoped that Adrien would be scared enough to not talk. Hawkmoth turned around and left him in the room. Adrien sobbed for minutes on end, his father had never done anything that horrible before. He realized how evil that man really was, and how ashamed he was to be that man's son. He finally picked himself up and left the lair, and eventually made his way back into his bedroom. The events that happened seemed to take hours, but in reality the time was 4:29. It hadn't even been an hour's time, a lot can happen in 53 minutes, a hell of a lot can happen. He had to decide what to do next, he obviously couldn't stay here, but where in the world would he go? Adrien sat down on his bed. Plagg flew into the room, assuming his job was done.

"Soooooo, what'd ya find?"

Adrien didn't respond.

"Hello? What was in the office? Adrien? Are you ok? Jeez dude, you're shaking! What the heck happened in there?!"

"I don't want to talk about it. We need to leave."

"Now?"

"Yeah."


	4. Chapter 4: Home

"Where are you going to go?"

"It's too late tonight, I'm going to transform and find a rooftop to sit on or something."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? Are you going to go to sleep?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well _I _am! And I don't want to be sucked int-"

"Claws out!"

Chat took one look at his bedroom, and ran off into the night. _Man I'm sure acting like an alley cat now. _All he had to do now was to figure out what to do with the time before school. He ran across the rooftops until he found one that was deserted. He wanted to sleep but he couldn't. Instead he just sat there under the moonlight, trying to forget everything that just happened. Eventually the city of Paris woke up and so did the sky, Adrien knew that in a couple of hours school would be starting and he would have to pretend that nothing had happened. Normally, he would've been worried about how everyone will view him after rejecting Marinette, but that incident had slipped his mind.

"Claws in!"

Plagg shot out of the ring.

"Adrien? What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, I really don't know. I'm going to go to school in a couple hours and… well I'll figure it out from there."

"_I_ think you should go home."

"I-I can't do that, Plagg."

"You have to tell me what happened... Or at least give me some camembert."

"Oh my god Plagg, _camembert."_

"Did you leave it at the house?"

"That and EVERYTHING! What am I going to do?!"

"Relax, we could probably break in at some point once we figure out where you'll go. Or you could just go back home."

"I told you, I can't do that." The rest was a whisper, "I can't believe him."

Plagg was pretty concerned about a lot of what Adrien had said, but he was mostly concerned about his cheese (as usual). Adrien wondered if his father was even going to akumitize anyone that day, he didn't know Adrien's secret identity and Hawkmoth rarely takes a day off.

* * *

Marinette woke up to the start of the day, she really didn't know what to do with herself. She confessed her love to Adrien, he didn't love her back, she couldn't keep chasing after him, even though she was still going to love him. She might have more time to help her parents, or design clothes, or just focus on being a superhero. _Being a superhero. _

"Ugh, Tikki."

"What?"

"I need to apologize to Chat Noir today."

"Yeah you were really harsh yesterday."

"Man, I hope nobody gets akumatized today, I wonder if he'll even show up, he's probably super angry at me. He probably hates me now."

Adrien _was _mad, but Ladybug wasn't the first thing on his mind at the moment. And she definitely wasn't the main source of his anger.

"Why wouldn't he show up? He's still going to want to save Paris."

"Yeah, I'm just worried I really hurt him this time, I can't believe I blew up like that. And I can't explain my situation to him because I can't say anything about my identity!"

"Hey, you'll figure it out, he'll understand enough of whatever you tell him not to hate you! Nobody can hate Ladybug!"

"Thanks, Tikki!"

They both giggled.

"Alright it's really time to go to school. C'mon get in my purse."

Marinette left to go to school, terrified to see Adrien post-rejection. But she had to do it, she had no choice. She didn't want to be angry with him for not wanting to be in a relationship with her, but she still was a bit. Mainly she was upset with herself because she blew up at Chat.

* * *

That morning Adrien didn't look very good, and for good reason. Of course he didn't look _bad,_ but he didn't look as he normally did. He hadn't slept all night plus he cried a bit too. Both Adrien and Marinette arrived at school at the same time. They were about to start talking to each other, which would most definitely be awkward. Before they had the chance, Nino and Alya arrived at the same time as well. Adrien needed to talk to Nino, he wanted to ask him if he could stay with him. He hadn't figured out what he'd tell Nino to explain why he wanted to stay with him, but Adrien decided just to wing it. Alya left Nino's side and started talking to Marinette. Adrien took that as an opportunity to ask Nino, but before he could Nino started talking.

"Dude! What's up? My grandparents are staying with me right now and my house is _so crowded._"

Well, obviously, that plan was out the window.

"Y'know… nothing much I guess."

"You look pretty tired, bro."

"Yeah… didn't sleep well."

"… Alright. What are you gonna do about Marinette, do you think things are gonna be awkward with her?"

"Hm? I hope not. She's an amazing girl and I wouldn't want to lose a friend over something like this."

The starting bell for class rang and all the students filed into the classroom. Adrien was trying to decide who he was going to stay with, he didn't want to bother Nino if his house was really crowded. _Who else am I really friends with? I could never stay with Chloe, too much public attention, I don't want people knowing. The only other person I'm sort of close with is... Marinette. _He really didn't want to ask her, it would be so awkward. But living on the rooftops would raise suspicion, plus Adrien really needed something stable. You don't always get what you need, running away pushed away his chance of having something truly stable in the near future. He was going to ask her at the end of the day, or at the next convenient time. Class ended, the time had come and Marinette always took a second to pack up her stuff, Adrien stayed back.

"Marinette."

She was surprised he was talking to her. Embarrassed, from events from the day before.

"Oh! H-hi Adrien. About yesterday…"

"Hey, its ok you're be fine. I'm just glad you're not mad at me!"

"Mad? _At_ _you?! _ No! No way! I was afraid you would think I'm a creep or something."

"Oh you're not a creep at all! You're an amazing person! I… well, I just never thought about you in that way before."

That was a bit of a lie, the way Adrien looks at her, he has definitely thought about her in that way. Marinette blushed, _how can be be so charming?_

"Thank you!"

"Hey… So I know this sounds _super _weird, and I feel horrible that I can't explain why to you. But, do you think your parents would be ok with… Well do you think they would let me stay at your house for a while? God, I know its so uncalled for. I- well, I just don't know what to do." _Don't cry, she'd be so weirded out._

"Uh… Wow." She had no idea that he would be asking her a question like that. Something really bad must have happened for him to need to stay with her. "Can I ask what happened? Can you tell me why, like at least a vague explanation or something."

"My father and I got into an argument. And… I found something. I can't tell you though." He really wanted to tell her, but he was terrified. Marinette looked at Adrien fully, he didn't look as stunning as normal, he looked exhausted, terrified, and his eyes were watery and a bit puffy. _What happened? _She really felt bad for him, and Adrien staying at her house! That would practically be a dream come true. She was just so worried that it would be awkward, that she would say the wrong thing. But Adrien coming over could help her get over his rejection, and bond them closer as friends. Or maybe spark a newfound romance.

"W-well you could come to my house after school and we can ask my parents, I'm sure that they'll you stay at our house, they're pretty understanding."

_I wish my dad was understanding_. Adrien felt incredibly lonely.

* * *

Adrien followed Marinette to the door to her house, he was a lot more nervous than he thought he would be. He realized the weight of his situation, what would happen if he couldn't stay there, what would happen if he did. If he couldn't stay with Marinette then he would really have nowhere to go unless he decided to go back to his father. He wouldn't have to wait long to figure out what would happen because Marinette's parents had just came to the door.

"Marinette? What is Adrien Agreste doing here?"

"W-Well uh so I, we need to… can we talk about, well you see-"

Adrien couldn't take Marinette's nervous blabbering, it would take them forever to get an answer at that rate.

"I need a place to stay for a little while…. And I was wondering if you guys are open to letting me stay here?"

Marinette was embarrassed of her inability to speak properly and ask her parents a question. She admired Adrien for picking up the slack and finishing, but then again she admired him for everything that he did.

"Well… we might be able to figure something out to help you out Adrien."

"But boy, why would you need to stay here, with us?"

"Uh… it's kind of a long story. I-I don't want to talk about that right now, if that's ok with you."

"If you don't want to talk about it that's fine. You can stay as long as you need to."

"You can stay on the couch in Marinette's room, or the one down here if you want."

"Wow, thank you so much. I don't know how to repay you."

"No worries, you're welcome here."

"I can take you to my room!" _Oh jeez he's going to see my room, he's going to stay here. OH MY GOD! ADRIEN IS GOING TO STAY HERE! _

"I'm sorry that I have to impose myself on you like this."

"No! No no no no! Its fine, it'll be fun having you here for a little while! But… do you know how long you want to stay here?"

"Woah, sick of me already?" He laughed, but he did realize this situation was incredibly strange. Marinette laughed nervously,

"No! I-"

"Relax, I'm kidding."

Marinette wished that she could've said something romantic, but she was definitely not confident enough to respond to Adrien like that. She also remembered that she was supposed to be getting over him, which she was very much not doing.

"Do you want to see the roof? I think the city looks nice from up there."

Adrien realized that he had to pretend that he had never seen the roof, because he did once when he visited as Chat.

"Of course."

They went up to the roof,

"Man I'll have to climb up on your bed whenever I want to go up there? I might have to climb over you."

Both Adrien and Marinette giggled.

"You better not step on me at some ungodly hour of the night, like 2 am or something."

Adrien was about to respond, but he remembered last night, the 2:36 am last night. The events started to replay in his head, he tried to ignore them. He couldn't formulate any response to Marinette other than,

"Why 2?"

"What? I was just thinking about a random late hour."

She didn't understand what she did wrong, but she knew something wasn't right. _This is why I don't try to be funny. _

"I'm sorry."

"No, you're fine."

Now it was awkward. Fortunately, mother nature cleared the air with the beginning of a beautiful sunset. Paris was surrounded with an orange glow as the sun dipped into the horizon.

"Wow, you're right, the view from up here _is_ beautiful."

Marinette looked at Adrien, his eyes wide. The only thing that she could think, which she whispered,

"Just like you are."

"What?"

"NOTHING! I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!"

Marinette was absolutely mortified. Adrien heard what she said, he thought it was sweet. He was happy to be spending more time with this amazing girl.


	5. Chapter 5: First Day

A/N: I'm not quite sure why, but this chapter was kind of hard to write. It wasn't so much that the material was hard, I just kept hating everything I put down lol. Anyway, I hope you like it.

* * *

The sun finally set and Adrien and Marinette got ready for bed. Everything was so unreal for Adrien because he had never had a sleepover before, it was odd to be sleeping in someone else's bedroom. On a occasion it would take him quite a while to fall asleep in a new environment. But Adrien was exhausted, he fell asleep in a matter of minutes. Marinette really wanted to talk to Tikki about the whole situation, but she didn't want to wake Adrien up, or reveal her identity. She would have to wait for another occasion to talk to Tikki. Marinette really wanted to sleep but she just kept thinking about Adrien sleeping just a few feet away from her. _Why did he choose to stay with ME, could he possibly… no. He said so himself! But… Maybe he just doesn't understand his feelings! What am I saying? Somebody like him would never want me. But… he could! NO! I'm supposed to be getting over him!_ She kept thinking about everything going on and kept on like that for a couple hours until she finally fell asleep debating if she should really be wondering all of these things about Adrien.

The morning felt like it was only seconds after when Marinette fell asleep. She opened her eyes slowly and let out a small sigh. Adrien was already up and he was sitting on his bed.

"Oh, you're up."

"I'm so sorry, were you waiting long?"

"No, I just woke up."

That was a lie, he woke up a while ago and didn't know what to do, his whole life his father had him on a strict routine. Now everything was different, not just his surroundings, just thinking about his old routine made him feel paranoid. _What if he had specific reasons for making me do all those activities, what if he just wanted me out of the way. For other reasons than to not spoil his evil plans, did he ever really love me? Of course he did! He's… he's my father. But… my father is Hawkmoth, my father is evil. _He was glad Marinette broke his thought concentration because he would've kept spiraling and freaking himself out. He also didn't know where to get ready or what he would do, would he shower or was that inconsiderate, what was he supposed to do. The lack of structure was a very new experience, especially to someone who had never really been impulsive before, at least not drastically.

"Do you want to get ready first? I don't take too long because I'm usually always in a hurry." Marinette laughed awkwardly. It was true, punctuality was not one of her strong suits.

"Sure, thanks."

A little while later they were both ready for school and went downstairs where Mr and Mrs Dupain-Cheng had made breakfast. It smelled wonderful and Adrien was super excited for a home cooked meal, because that never happened with his father. Both of them came down the stairs at the same time, Marinette's parents were really cheerful as the kids went into the kitchen.

"Did you sleep well? Is everything okay here?"

"Yes! I slept great, thank you, you guys are amazing. I can't thank you enough for everything."

"Oh it's no problem! We love having another friendly face around!"

They were so sweet it was sickening, Adrien didn't feel like he deserved all this, they were being too nice to a kid they didn't even know the story behind why he was there. They didn't know he was a son of a supervillain. _But I'm not just the son of a supervillain, I'm a superhero myself and I need to stop moping! I want to take down my father. _As soon as they finished their breakfast, Marinette and Adrien walked to school together. The walk started awkwardly as neither of them knew what to talk about. The silence stayed for a couple of minutes, until Adrien said something he didn't really expect to come out of his mouth.

"I left because of my dad. That's why I ran away, that's why I needed to stay with you. I already told you that though… I just felt- I don't know."

"What?"

"I'm sorry. I've made everything so much more awkward."

"No! No you're fine!"

She paused for a few seconds, unsure if she should ask,

"What did he do?"

"I-it's just that I found something out about him. Something that feels like a big betrayal, morally."

He realized that if he went on talking he might have a full on breakdown thinking about it again.

"Seriously, that's horrible, if my parents were even a bit morally questionable I don't know what I'd do."

"Can we talk about something else?"

That was the most powerless Marinette had ever heard Adrien speak, he had a normal alluring confidence along with his appearance. She felt really bad at that moment because it felt like she was in with something she wasn't supposed to.

"Of course! I think we have a math test today, are you ready for it? Because I sure am not."

They continued talking about school related topics, Marinette was surprised that she could keep a conversation going with him because normally she couldn't say two straight words to him without getting flustered. _Maybe I'm starting to get over him! …Or maybe I'm just getting more confident around him. _They got fairly close to the school and Marinette realized that she normally walked into school alone.

"Do you think that it would be suspicious if we walked into school together? Unless you're ok with people knowing…"

"No, you should go in, I'll come in after the bell rings so that people don't notice the limo not approaching. Man. I hate that thing."

"You hate the limo?"  
"Just too flashy."

_And it just reinforced the idea that I'm supposed to be better than other people, like the driver. Just another display of how amazing Adrien Agreste is, but what if he wasn't as amazing as his father wanted the world to believe. _

"Oh. That makes sense."

"Hey… Do you think that you could not tell anyone that I'm staying with you?"

"Why? I mean I respect that you don't want people knowing you ran away, but what about friends? Like Nino or Alya?"

"I just don't want it all to go public, you know how the media is, I'd like to tell Nino myself though. You can tell Alya, but just make sure to let her know that she can't tell anybody else."

"Ok, thanks for letting me tell her. I don't want it to be a big deal either."

"The media would be storming your house!" They both laughed.

"Oh come on, business would be great at the bakery! All that press, it would be a _great _opportunity! Who needs privacy?!"

They both started laughing a lot harder. They almost didn't notice how close they were getting to the school. Marinette didn't even noticed until Adrien said,

"We're getting pretty close to the school, I'll hang back."

"Ok, see you in class Adrien!"

She walked into school and had to act as if her biggest crush wasn't living in her house. It was a lot harder than she thought, just having another secret other than her superhero identity. Marinette did not like secrets, and she did not like keeping them. It was better than being withheld from them. At least she could tell Alya, Alya would probably be excited for her. She walked up to the building and found her best friend there.

"Hey girl! What's up? How are you?"

"Oh my _god, _Alya, there's so much I have to tell you!"

"Like what?! It must be really important."

It was. Marinette usually didn't really have a lot of news, so when she did Alya got really into it.

"It's kind of a secret so I have to tell you in private."

"Now you've got me even more excited!"

"I'll tell you after class, ok."

The bell rang and all the students ran into the building, Adrien joined the crowd. He couldn't stop thinking about Marinette. He assumed all of the close proximity was why, but something felt different about the way he was thinking about her. It was almost as if he was thinking of her the way he thinks of Ladybug. It wasn't nearly as strong, but it was definitely there. The first half of the day crept by slowly, Marinette could hardly pay attention to the what the teachers were saying. Her mind kept drifting off, she kept dreaming about spending more time with Adrien. _We could play video games! Listen to music! We could just sit and talk. I'm so excited, I want to do so many things together. _The bell for lunch finally rang, Alya immediately went to talk to Marinette.

"Hey! What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Ok, so y'know how Adrien was sort of upset yesterday."

"I didn't notice too much, but yeah."

"Well, something really bad happened with his dad. I'm not sure what, he hasn't told me about it. I don't blame him, I'm still curious though. Anyway, because something happened with his dad, he didn't want to stay at home with him. Well… he needed a place to stay, and now he's living with me for a little while."

"Seriously! That's great! Well, it's definitely not great that he had a big fight with his dad, but you get to spend time with him though!" Alya paused for a second when she remembered, "Didn't you want to get over him?"

"I _did_. But this was such a good chance."

"I knew you wouldn't be able to get over him."

"Hey!"

They both started giggling. While Marinette was talking to Alya, Adrien decided that it would be best if he told Nino as well. He'd find out anyway, it was best to tell him now. After they walked out of the classroom Adrien told him.

"Hey, uh, my dad and I got into a fight." He paused for a couple seconds, "a _big _fight."

"Dude?! Are you okay? Did he do anything?! I knew he was a horrible person, I just new it."

"No, I'm fine, but I sort of ran away."

"You can stay with me if you want! You're my best friend."

"No, this is kind of the more surprising part, I'm staying with Marinette."

"You asked her before you asked me?"

"I was going to ask you first, but you were talking about how crowded it was at home and I didn't want to bother y-

"You can bother me with this stuff anytime. You can talk to me, bro, you're my best friend!"

"Thanks, Nino."

* * *

The rest of the school day went by pretty slowly. At the end of the day Marinette had to stay after for a meeting as the class representative. Adrien didn't want to show up to her house alone, so he asked the music teacher if he could stay after to practice piano, for being forced to play it, it was pretty fun to be able to play an instrument. He texted Marinette about it so that they could walk together, maybe she could stay and listen to him play it.

"So, can I use the music room to practice for a bit?"

"Of course you can! Maybe someday you could accompany some of our groups here!"

"I'll think about it. Thank you for letting me use it."

"Say, why do you need to use our piano anyway? Don't you have one of your own?"

Adrien panicked for a second, but he quickly came up with a lie.

"Oh, ours is getting tuned and my father wanted the _best of the best" _

"Oh, ok have fun playing, and if you need any music, there's some over there." She pointed towards a table over in the corner of the room.

Adrien had never really chosen his own music before, _father had always picked out some genius classical piece that he wanted me to perfect, I could choose anything to play, anything at all. There were so many things I never really thought about all that I can do now without him, there's really so many simple things I never had the liberty to do before. _Thinking about this made him sad, he also thought something that he really wished that he didn't, _why was I so surprised that he was a villain, he really is a horrible man_. Shocked by his own thoughts, he decided to drown out his father by playing anything on the piano. Meanwhile, Marinette's meeting with the other class representatives was going well, she put up many good points to improve the student experience, like interchanging seating.

"The teachers could change our seating arrangements every couple of weeks, where we could sit with someone new and get new ideas about the topics that we are discussing in class."

"That's a great idea, Marinette!"

She didn't really like the idea all too much herself, even though she proposed it. Marinette liked sitting by Alya. But she did think it would give her a way to get to know her classmates, and to sit by Adrien at some point. The meeting went over well, but it ended early. She noticed the text on her phone and decided to go to the music room to see Adrien, the closer that she got, the more she could hear his music. She walked into the room quietly and Adrien didn't even notice. Marinette just stood there as she listened to him play. Once he made a mistake,

"Wow, that's a really pretty piece."

Adrien jumped.

"Wow, you startled me."

They both laughed.

"Sorry, it was just nice to hear."

"Do you want to join me?"

"Oh, I don't know how to play."

"Here, I can show you."

He patted a spot next to him on the piano bench. Marinette was nervous, but she sat down.

"Now just put your hands on top of mine. And then we just…"

Adrien started playing, Marinette's hands placed on top of his, she looked over at him. He had his eyes closed, probably because he knew the song so well. It was different from the one he was playing when she first walked in, it was the one he played all the time at home. Marinette tried to focus on their hands, but all she could do was stare at his beautiful, perfect face. Then, he made a mistake, the weightless ambiance of the soft music was shattered. Adrien opened his eyes and locked them to Marinette's for a split second. They were both blushing,

"Um… well, we should probably get going now."

"Yeah that would be good, let's do that."


	6. Chapter 6: Magneteur

Later that night, Adrien and Marinette were about to go to bed. Marinette realized something about Hawkmoth.

"Have you noticed that Hawkmoth really hasn't akumatized anyone for the past two days?"

Marinette was genuinely confused, there was usually one every day, and he usually only skipped one day at a time.

"Yeah… that's pretty odd."  
Adrien was worried that it was because of him, he secretly wanted his father to be spending his time looking for him instead of people to make into villains. He might be evil, but Adrien still really wanted his father's acknowledgement and validation. They both sat in silence for a minute, Marinette really wanted to have a good conversation with Adrien, but she had no idea what to talk about. Then, it hit her. She didn't really want to talk about it, but she knew she had to.

"Hey, you know the other day…"

Adrien's first thought was about everything that happened with his father. _What? How does she know? What could she possibly be talking about. _Then he realized she meant when she confessed her love and he said that he didn't share those feelings.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I just don't want it to be awkward y'know, like with us being friends and everything."

"I don't think that it's awkward between us."

"Well, I-I just want to know if everything that you said was the whole truth and all."

"Oh. Yeah, I don't really have a lot of time for a relationship. But… I guess that's not the _whole _reason."

"Well… What is it? Did I do someth-"

"No! It's just that I like another girl!"

He was embarrassed that he cut her off, he usually didn't do things like that while talking to people.

"Oh."

"I'm sorry, but if it makes you feel any better, I don't think that she likes me back."

"What?! How could someone not like _you!"_

Adrien let out a small laugh,

"Well, you when we first met."

"Yeah, but that was because I thought you were putting gum on my chair!"

"Well, I haven't been putting gum on her chair."

"This girl must be an idiot."

"She's not. She- well she's just great."

"Oh god, I'm so sorry, I mean- I shouldn't badmouth the girl you love."

"No, it's ok, I probably shouldn't talk about her anyway, I didn't even think about how you must feel right now."

"Is… is she really so much better than me?"

"No! I just think that love works in mysterious ways. You're a great person."

He thought for a second, _Marinette is amazing and talented, she's almost as wonderful as Ladybug. _They didn't talk for a few minutes. Adrien broke the silence this time.

"Hey… do you ever feel like nobody really knows you."

"Well, I guess sometimes I feel like that. Why?"

She felt like that a lot, not being able to tell anyone her secret identity made her question how well everyone knew her. It also made her question if any of her friends had big secrets as well.

"I don't know… I just feel that I nobody knows who I really am. Maybe… _I _don't even know who I am."

"You're a great friend, a super talented kid, and… well, you're really, y'know… attractive."

"Thanks. But is that all that everybody sees me as?"

"As what?"

"Does everybody just see me as a pretty face?"

"Well, I don't speak for everybody. But I don't think that's true."

"Is it bad to say that I don't like being a celebrity model? I don't like that my face is plastered all around town, and sure it seems nice to have fans." He sighed. "But they love me because I look nice, and it kind of sucks. It sucks to know that people are always going to act different around me because I'm a celebrity or whatever, I don't know."

Marinette felt a little bit targeted because he talked about people loving him. _I don't just love him for his appearance, I love him for the sweet boy that he is_.

"Hey, its okay to not like that people only like you for themselves, I kind of get what you mean."

_Or Ladybug does at least. _

"Thanks. I think I'm going to go to bed, thanks for talking with me, Marinette. You're truly a wonderful friend."

Even after finishing talking, there was only one thing left on Adrien's mind, _Why does everybody love me, but nobody loves Chat Noir? Does anybody really even love me? _If Marinette could read his mind, she would tell him that, yes she did indeed love him. But, unfortunately, mind-reading is not part of the Ladybug miraculous' repertoire.

* * *

The next morning, Marinette and Adrien were on top of their game. If any akuma came that day, Hawkmoth had no chance. Adrien was still a bit sad from the night before, but his mind wasn't focused on that. Everything was running smoothly, Marinette and Adrien were closer than ever, and school lessons were easy to pay attention to. Unknown to them, Hawkmoth's next victim was a small boy in elementary school. He was sitting in class, and as soon as recess started he went to grab his backpack. One of the meanest girls in the class came up to him,

"I heard you got all the spelling words right on the test. Nobody does that."  
The little boy was excited, he thought this was a compliment.

"Yeah, I studied really h-"

"That's why you don't need these, right?"

She picked up his bag, and ran to the door, distributing miscellaneous notebooks and writing utensils to her fellow angry peers. Everyone was laughing at the little boy. He ran outside to get all his belongings.

"Where did you put them?" He demanded from the mean little girl.

"We're not telling you, we've hidden them all around. I hope you're as good at searching for things as you are at spelling things!"

With a mischievous smile, she threw one of his pencils at him, then ran off to play with her friends. The little boy sat down and started crying. He would have to search the whole school to find all of his supplies, all because he did well on a test. This wasn't fair! Up in his lair, Hawkmoth was excited, he took a break for a couple days because he was slightly upset about his argument with Adrien. A little break in the plan wasn't going to stop him from getting those miraculouses. He casted the akuma out to the little boy, which flew into the pencil he was holding.

"Your peers don't appreciate your knowledge, they mock you and ridicule you, they hide your belongings. I am Hawkmoth, and I can give you, _Magneteur, _the power to attract any object you think of, and know the location of any other object you've seen before. In exchange for these powers you must get me Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculouses."

"Thank you for the powers, Hawkmoth. I will get you those miraculouses and get my revenge."

Hawkmoth didn't just give the child these powers to retrieve the miraculouses, he also gave them to him in hopes of finding Adrien. A longshot, but an idea nonetheless. The other children in the playground started screaming. Magneteur, who's pencil had been changed into a magnetic magic wand, stood before them. He was still his normal size, but he had transformed similarly to other akumatized people before. Really, nothing about his evilization had been in any way unique.

"You want to take _my _stuff?! I will take your stuff!"

He started pulling his own belongings back to him, and assorted belongings of the other children. Assorted toys, shoes, school supplies, and for his main bully, he stole her whole backpack. All of these items swirled around the boy in a chaotic manner, as he left to fulfil his promise to Hawkmoth.

"These, and Chat Noir and Ladybug's miraculouses will be ours. Me and Hawkmoth! I will stop all you meanies out there, nobody mean will own anything!"

"Yes, Magneteur, and Chat Noir and Ladybug are very mean, they won't even let me get that magical wish I want with their miraculouses!"

"Oh, I'll show them!"

The little boy wandered around the city with his new objects trailing behind him, suspended by his magic wand.

Marinette and Adrien had no idea about the akuma. The sirens were a bit delayed, Magneteur had pulled a few of them toward him. He couldn't just attract the miraculouses, he had to get closer to the superheros. Fortunately for him, he had the power of location, but only with objects he has seen before. He had never seen one of the miraculouses in person, only on the television. That didn't count though. Finally, the sirens reached Marinette and Adrien, they both ran into seperate parts of the school to transform. Adrien reflected on this new attack.

"I guess he's getting back in the game. That didn't take long."

"Ugh. I wonder what the little break was for."

Both superheros shot out of the school and met up on a random rooftop.

"So, who are we fighting?"

"It's a little kid. He has the power to attract objects."

"Oh, so the miraculouses are in danger."

"Well, I don't know. I think that their magic would keep them on us, I don't think he could just pull them off."

"Yeah, but he may be able to pull us toward him with the miraculouses."

"Well, I'll come up with a plan. You look out around and see if anything seems suspicious."

"Ok, fine."

He was still sick of being on the backburner, but it wasn't like he could change anything. Looking for their target was a good idea anyway, so at least he was being helpful. Looking around there didn't really seem to be anything nearby, but then he saw something. There were pencils, and they were floating. They were getting closer to the center of town.

"M'lady, do you see that?"

The pencils were followed by assorted textbooks and notebooks. Along with wallets, jewelry, and other knick knacks.

"That must be what he's been attracting. Most of that stuff is useless, why is he hoarding it?"

"He's a kid. Maybe someone took his stuff."

"Follow my lead." Ladybug snuck to the other side of the rooftop and propelled herself to one closer to their target. They were right above a clothing store. They snuck down and entered. The shop owner wasn't there.

"What are we doing here?"

"Start putting on gloves, he can't take your miraculous if you're wearing a lot of gloves."

"Won't he just attract them off?" Chat was pretty confused with this plan, they usually seem more thought out or complex. But, he wasn't going to argue with Ladybug.

"Yeah, but it'll take a while and he'll put all his focus into doing that."

Chat started putting gloves on his hand, a lot of gloves.

"How many should I use?"

"As many as you can fit." Ladybug was looking out of the window at the little boy. He was looking in windows of houses for items to take. He didn't really seem to notice that they were in the clothes store.

"What are we going to do when I'm done putting on gloves?"

"All you have to do is stand there and let him get the gloves off. With the amount you've got on, it's going to buy us a lot of time."

"That's all you want me to do? Stand and get gloves taken off of me?"

"Yeah, that's about it."

_Well, at least I won't be able to screw that up. _

"When you're letting him focus on you, I'll sneak up on him and throw his wand to you, then you'll destroy it."

"What if the wand doesn't have the akuma in it?"  
"What else would? Everything else is floating around him."

The plan was set, Chat went outside into the little boy's vision.

"Ah! Look, this is going to be easier than I thought! It's like… like… taking cat from a baby? Wait no. Getting candy out of a bag! Shoot, that's not-"

Hawkmoth was getting sick of this child's lack of focus on the mission. He decided to send a message to him.

"That's not the saying! But that doesn't even matter! Get Chat Noir's miraculous! Do. It. NOW!"

During his fit of annoyed rage, Ladybug snuck behind Magneteur and tried to wade through the clutter to get to the akuma. Chat was keeping direct eye contact with the boy, who had tried to attract his ring moments before. In failing to do so, he realized that the gloves were prohibiting him from getting the prize for Hawkmoth.

"You think you're a sneaky cat? You're not! I'm getting your ring you dumb kitty!"

"Oh, goodness, I'm so offended."

"Good!" The boy tried to laugh evilly, but it came out as more of a giggle. He must've been too young to understand sarcasm. The gloves started slipping off one by one. Magneteur directed all of his attention into taking the gloves off of Chat. While Ladybug was behind him, she realized he was a bit too far away from Chat for her to throw the wand to him. The only idea she had was to whisper, "Miraculous Ladybug!" Her magic created a large rubber band with the classic red with black spots of the Ladybug. _Oh, I know what to do. _Chat had about three gloves left on his hand, he was starting to get worried. For as much as he trusted Ladybug, even the best of plans can fail sometimes. Right as Magneteur was about to attract the third glove, he raised his hand and Ladybug snatched it from him and set it in the back of the rubber band. She pulled at the band and propelled it to Chat. He used his claws from his free hand to tear off the remaining gloves on his hand. He could've taken them off normally, but this way it looked much cooler. As the torn gloves flew off he shouted "Cataclysm!" and as he caught the wand, it crumpled into black dust. The butterfly flew out, and Ladybug trapped it and changed it back to its normal state. She cast out the Ladybugs and everything went back to normal. She walked over to Chat.

"Hey, thanks for trusting me. Pound it?"

They did their signature fist bump. The little boy was sitting on the ground, holding his belongings.

"What happened?" He was scared and confused.

"You were akumatized, here I'll take you back to school." Chat Noir picked him up and took him all the way back to the playground. Ladybug got about a block away from the school and detransformed. Akkumas were so prevalent that there would still be a regular school day after an attack. Considering today's attack was pretty much before school started at all, they would still have a school day afterward. Marinette went inside the school in hopes of talking to Adrien before they started class again, but he was nowhere to be seen. It seemed like he was the only thing she had been thinking about lately. But when was that not the case? Chat successfully brought the little boy to his school and then shot off into the distance to find his way back to the high school. He was happy that the fight was short and successful. _I feel like Ladybug has been acting like she wants nothing to do with me lately. Maybe she is still mad at me? Ugh, she's always mad at me. _The five minutes ran up and Chat changed back, just in time as the bell rang as he ran into class. He was the late one, not Marinette for a change. For some unknown reason, the rest of class Adrien kept thinking about Marinette, and Marinette couldn't stop thinking about Chat Noir. Or maybe they did know the reason, and just didn't want to admit it.


	7. Chapter 7: Baking

A/N: I kind of feel like the story is going a different direction from what it started as, so I'm sorry if the description is a bit off at this point. I'm also not sure how many more chapters I'm going to make, but I have an ending in mind so I'm not going to leave it unfinished. I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

* * *

Marinette and Adrien were living together for about a week. They were settling into a routine and no matter how much they tried to deny it, they both were falling in love with each other. Marinette didn't think she could fall more in love with Adrien than she already was. The way she felt it was more than she did before. The simple things that he'd say to her during the day. The way they'd talk before they fell asleep. Marinette was hardly nervous around him anymore too. Adrien loved being around people all the time. Marinette's parents were so caring and sweet. They treated Adrien as if he was their own kid. As much as Adrien loved that, it made him miss his mother even more. But it also caused him to grow more angry at his father, who couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention. He was also surprised about how bored he was, there was so much free time now to do whatever he pleased. It was liberating, but at the same time it was terrifying. On Saturday, Marinette and Adrien were just finishing up on their science homework. It went a lot faster when they helped each other.

Mr and Mrs Dupain-Cheng came upstairs, they had gotten a really big order and didn't realize that they needed more ingredients. It was for a wedding, and they had a strict time limit to complete all of the pastries. They weren't assigned the cake, the bride wanted to have a different bakery make it, so that they could devote their full attention to it. The parents knocked on Marinette's door.

"Are you two busy in there? We need some help in the bakery."

Marinette's mother popped her head through the opening.

"Yeah mom, we're doing homework."

"Hey, we're almost done anyway. It couldn't hurt to take a break. Besides, this could be fun."

Adrien was a bit embarrassed, he had never really baked anything before. Plus, once you bake something you get to eat it in the end. In this case, not so much, but there were always the screw-ups. Marinette on the other hand, baked all the time and it was practically second nature to her. She was good at it, but at times it was pretty boring. It also lost a bit of its charm, it was nice to make something nice for people she cared about though. Her parents still hold onto the romantic aspect of baking, though. It's pretty sweet how they don't let the time get to them.

"Ugh, sorry about them. We don't have to-"

"It's okay! It'll be fun! I… well, I've never actually baked anything before. I don't know if I'm any good."

"Really? Not even with your m-" Marinette realized what she was saying and stopped herself. "I-I'm sorry."

"It's ok. We never did. We're done anyway, let's go help them."

They went downstairs into the bakery, there were two different recipes sitting out for Marinette and Adrien to work on. The order had a bit more but they only tasked the kids with two because they were buying materials for the rest. The bakery was set up for them to start right away.

"So, what are we making?"

"Well, looks like macarons, I'm not surprised, and mini eclairs."

"Man, that sounds really hard. I'm really going to need to follow your lead."

"I guess it seems difficult, but it's really not. I'll gladly lead you."

They looked at all of their ingredients and sorted out all the measuring materials and bowls that they needed. Adrien was a little bit nervous about screwing up, because this was for customers and he didn't want Marinette's parents to be disappointed in him.

"What are we going to start with?"

"We'll do the macarons first, we have to make a lot more of those. We'll measure the ingredients and pour them into this bowl and then you mix them while I get the rest of the items ready."

"Alright." It seemed natural to him that she was taking charge. As if she already had, dozens of times. Adrien was pretty good at following others' orders, it's what he did most of the time. They started to mix the ingredients, Adrien was smiling like a small child and Marinette couldn't help looking at him. It made her happy that he was so excited about this, about something she could do well.

"What flavor are we making?"

"Well, it's a wedding, so I think they'd want a color and flavor to match their theme."

"Do you know what their theme is?"

"Let's see," Marinette looked through the recipes and the papers around that her parents left out. "It looks like they're using purple, blue, and, of course, white."

"We could do each color interchangeably in the tower! Like blue then white then purple then white again."

"Oh! And the white ones could be half vanilla and half coconut, the blue ones could be blueberry, and the purple ones…"

"What about passion fruit? That's my favorite flavor."

Marinette knew that already, she knew that all too well.

"Yes! Of course!"

"How will people tell if its vanilla or coconut?"

"Well, maybe we could put it on the top of the tower, a little guide. And the coconut ones could have coconut pieces on top."

"You're sure that they gave us creative liberty on the flavors?"

"Nothing says otherwise."

They started mixing all the flavors into different bowls, and creating the cookies. They started getting into a rhythm and when Marinette would tell Adrien to get or do something, when she would teach him something, he would follow perfectly.

"Man, I feel like we've done this before."

"What?"

"Worked together like this."

"We haven't, but I feel it too."

They had worked together before, thousands of times. They just didn't realize the connection between fighting Hawkmoth, and having fun baking. Not to mean that saving the city wasn't fun, but it was a completely different situation.

"Maybe it was destiny for us to create this order." Adrien laughed. Marinette laughed because he did, his laugh was so adorable. She wanted him to do it forever. After putting the flavors into the mixtures, they had to dye the passionfruit and the blueberry. Marinette was dying the passion fruit, and Adrien was dying the blueberry. As he had never baked before, Adrien didn't realize that he should only use a tiny bit of food coloring. So, he poured a bunch in.

"Adrien?! What are you doing?!"

"Coloring it?" He didn't understand what he was doing wrong.

"Oh my, you used so much color."

"Oh… did I use too much? I'm so sorry. Shoot."

Marinette wasn't really mad in the first place, but seeing Adrien so disappointed in himself made her feel really bad. She mixed it for him and he started laughing.

"Oh my god, it's so dark."

Marinette started laughing too, it was pretty funny.

"Well… they're more of a, a…"

"Deep sea blueberry." Adrien started giggling.

"Yes, an aquatic blueberry." Marinette joined in with him.

"The blueberries just came back from their Atlantic Cruise."

In between laughs, Marinette managed to choke out,

"They tanned a bit, sorry for the color."

They started laughing hysterically to the point where they couldn't comment anymore. As if either of them could come up with anything else. After a while of the two giggling and piping out macarons, they managed to get them in the oven. Somehow, they made the fillings without any trouble. They had to start making the eclairs soon, Marinette's parents were going to get back soon and they needed to finish things before the order was due. Her parents would want to use the rest of the kitchen while they helped clean up.

While Marinette dug around the kitchen to find bowls and supplies for the eclairs, Adrien watched her. He didn't realize so many things about her before now. She was running around frantically, but there was a charm to each one of her actions. She may have lost her balance or came close to dropping something, but she didn't, the fluidity of her actions mesmerized Adrien. Most of the time, when he would watch his photographers, Nathalie, or his father work, they were cold and rigid. It was nice to watch something unplanned. Adrien felt a warm feeling inside, something that wasn't quite love, but more of a feeling of admiration. It was a sweet feeling, a soft feeling, just like a pastry. In a way, watching Marinette run around made Adrien feel calm. Marinette was anything but calm, she wanted to get everything quickly so that she could still be alone with Adrien to talk to him. Not only was she thinking of collecting all of the supplies and putting them together, she was also replaying all the things that they had said to each other in her head. _Did I say something wrong at all? He must think I'm an idiot or something, ugh look at me right now running around like a chicken with its head cut off. He probably thinks I'm crazy. I don't even think we've made any progress. I mean, sure I'm not as nervous around him and I can actually speak my sentences… But just being able to speak to someone doesn't guarantee that they will develop feelings for you, this is probably a lost cause. _Between her racing thoughts and doubts, she didn't even notice that she took out way too many items. She continued to race around.

"Hey, Marinette? Are you okay?"

"Yeah! Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well… I don't know the recipe, but do we really need 10 bowls to make these?"

Marinette looked over at the counter and saw all that she took out. Her face went red.

"Oh shoot, I'm such an idiot. I-I.-"

"Hey, it's okay, I understand that this is kind of stressful. You don't want to let your parents down and all."

"No, that's not it. I know that everything is going to turn out fine. It's-" She didn't know why she was saying this, she could've gone with his lie but instead she told him exactly why she was so flustered. "It's just that I feel so intimidated around you."

"There's nothing to be intimidated about! I mean I could try and-"

"No! It's just because the way you lived before you came here, you had all these things. You were doing all those activities and your house is so big compared to mine, and you, you, you're just so _perfect_. Your life was all perfect, other than your dad I guess… Man, why am I even saying this, this is ridiculous I'm so sorry."

"Listen, Marinette" He locked eyes with Marinette. "I've been the happiest I've been spending time with you and your family, ever since my mom…" He looked down at the floor for a second, and then looked back up at Marinette "And, well, I don't miss being at home! Not at all, I was so alone there. It was so cold and empty. And here, well it's just so full of life and, and it- well, it makes me happy. It was anything but perfect." _I know everyone thinks it is, I know everybody thinks I am, but I'm not._

They both stared at each other for a couple more seconds.

"I-" She was flattered in a way, but really didn't know how to respond. "Thank you?"

"I, really, should be the one thanking you."

"… Do you want to just, start making the eclairs?"

"Yeah, okay."

They created the dough and started putting it into piping bags. They both had their own trays and piping bags to place down. Marinette started and everything was working fairly efficiently. Adrien tried his best, but he couldn't get the hang of the piping, and none of the pastries took shape.

"Hey, can you help me? Or at least tell me what I'm doing wrong?"

Marinette didn't even realize that Adrien was having trouble.

"Oh, haha, here let me help you."

She put her hands on the piping bag and showed Adrien how to squeeze it out correctly, and how much. She placed her hands intentionally, out of the way of Adrien's, but in her focus of piping, she moved them where half of her hands were on top of his. As she finished demonstrating, she looked up at him and smiled. Then, she realized the positioning of her hands, her face went red and she let go of the bag.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!"

"Sorry? What are you sorry for? You explained this really well, I totally understand how to do it now."

Marinette tried to explain why she had apologized. "Well I, er, uhh… hands? On your-"

"Hey, whatever it was, I accept your apology."

They completed their desserts as Marinette's parents came back and finished up the order. Everything was all packed up and ready to be given to the wedding. Due to a mixup with a friend, the bride came to the Dupain-Cheng's to pick up the treats. Right before she entered the store, she got a call from the flourist that was going to deliver the flowers.

(A/N: The convo is just from what you hear from the bride, I didn't think it needed the other dialogue, its self explanatory.)

"Yes? What do you mean you ran out of roses?! What flower shop runs out of roses?! No, I can't exchange them for another flower because then it wouldn't match the scheme! Another day? I'm getting married TODAY, this is MY wedding day and you're going to get me those flowers! I prepaid for them ages ago!" With all this pent up stress, the woman walked into the bakery to retrieve her order, a couple of friends came with her to carry them all.

"We could cater these at the event if you want! You really don't need to take them now."

"There are specific things that I want done today, and I need to make everything perfect. Thank you for the offer, though."

"You're welcome! Thank you for using our bakery for the wedding, I hope that it's magical."

The Dupain-Chengs didn't quite understand why the bride herself was completing all these tasks on the day of her wedding, but they didn't want to judge the woman. As soon as she left their bakery, she gives all the pastries to her friends, who take them to the venue. The bride gets a phone call, it's one of her family members, they told her that they couldn't make it to the ceremony. That was the last straw. She went into a complete meltdown, which Hawkmoth was very excited about.

During the week his son has been gone, he's been pretty much ignoring that he's gone. Gabriel buried himself in his work, as if he could more than he already did. Sometimes he'll tell Nathalie to check on Adrien, just to reinforce the idea that nothing has changed. She plays along with him. After Hawkoth sent out the akuma, it transformed the bride after it flew into her phone. She grew a bit taller, and wore a lavishly extravagant wedding gown, her phone became a sort of wand which Hawkmoth would explain the power for.

"Hello, I am Hawkmoth. I have transformed you into _Bridezilla _and I have given you the power to control someone's mind, so that they can make everything perfect for your wedding. In exchange for these powers I need something in return, the miraculouses of Ladybug and Chat Noir, can you do this for me?"

"Why, of course Hawkmoth!" She smiled deviously, ready to make the world her's.


	8. Chapter 8: Bridezilla

Adrien and Marinette saw the whole akumatization, they needed to figure out a way to go and transform.

"Man, poor woman, she must be so stressed trying to do everything at once." Adrien understood how she felt.

"Yeah, no kidding. No wonder she got akumatized."

They stood there for a second trying to figure out an excuse to go and transform. Marinette decided to go upstairs, to tell Adrien she said,

"I-I uh… I need to go up to my room, but I need to do it alone! Ok bye!"

Adrien snuck outside to transform, while Marinette transformed in her room and left through her balcony. The two superheroes started making their way towards the target and realized that they were coming from the same direction and ran to Bridezilla together.

"A wedding themed fight! Isn't that romantic m'lady?" Chat batted his eyes and wore a cheesy smile.

"If I were getting married to you, I'd get akumatized as well!" She smirked back at him. Chat put his hands at his heart and gasped dramatically.

"If we were getting married I'd make our wedding purr-fect."

"I'm sure you would, kitty. But you'd have to get there first." Ladybug giggled.

"Don't be so certain I won't." He winked at her.

"Yeah, never in a million years."

"I'll be waiting for a million and one year." They both laughed.

"I don't think that the Ladybug's lifespan is that long."

"Well, I mean we don't know all that we're capab-"

Bridezilla had turned around at that point.

"Will you two shut up! I am trying to fix everybody for my wedding! Your stupid conversation is really distracting!"

Telepathically, Hawkmoth screamed at the woman "Ladybug and Chat Noir are right there, fight them! Get their miraculouses!"

To fight them, her plan was to control Chat Noir's mind, because she could only control one mind completely at a time, and all the other villains seemed to go to Chat Noir first. She could control multiple minds at once, but not with her full attention, the other people would continue doing the last thing she told them to do.

"Little kitties aren't suited well for weddings! Oh the trouble you could cause, Chat Noir!"

She started to control him, but the second before she did, he screamed "cataclysm!" She wouldn't be able to take his ring without getting hurt. Even though it seemed like a good plan, he couldn't account for the fact that she could just tell him to touch something.

Bridezilla was in control of Chat's mind, she picked an empty can off of the ground and handed it to him to get rid of the cataclysm. Right before she could hand it to him, Ladybug grabbed Chat's arm and put it down on the building below them. Fortunately, it didn't destroy the building, just the ceiling. It gave Ladybug time to grab Chat, who was basically unconscious without control over his actions, and find a place where she could come up with a plan. It was hard to swing around holding Chat, he threw Ladybug's balance off. She decided to land in a park because the sprinklers were on, and Bridezilla wouldn't want to mess up her dress or shoes.

"I guess I'm doing everything by myself this time." Ladybug laid Chat on the ground and sighed.

"Lucky charm!"

The miraculous conjured a bouquet of flowers.

"Now what am I going to do with this?"

Without time to think, Bridezilla arrived to collect Chat, and to fight Ladybug. She was followed by an army of civilians that were ready at her command.

"Hi there Ladybug. I realized that my wedding would be much nicer if I had your beautiful earrings, and of course, I need my ring from Chat Noir." She smiled as if she had just told a compliment.

"You don't need our miraculouses for a good wedding!"

"My guests think otherwise! ATTACK LADYBUG!"

Everybody started swarming at Ladybug. She panicked, there were so many people. She did the only thing she could think of doing, she threw the lucky charm. The guests chased it, Chat Noir included. He ran like a cat, on all fours. Of course, whoever catches the bouquet is the next one to get married! This caught Bridezilla off guard.

"No! Come back! Fight her!"

As her head was turned, Ladybug yanked the akumatized wand out of her hand and smashed it on the ground. The butterfly flew out and everything went back to normal. Chat stood up and walked over to Ladybug.

"Hey." He sounded defeated. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"I'm sorry that she affected me. I'm sorry that I was useless again. I feel like we're supposed to be this team, and I'm letting you down."

"You're not letting me down! It would sure be nice to have your help every time, but you try your best."

"Maybe I should just stop being a superhero. It would be a lot easier for you if you didn't have to carry me around."

"No! I need you, like you said, we're a team. I need you!"

"It sure doesn't seem like it! Plus, you don't even like me either, why are you trying to convince me that I'm better than I am!?"

"It's not my fault that I'm not madly in love with you. We were chosen for this! You have a purpose being Chat Noir! I'm not convincing you that you're better than you are. You're not perfect, not by a long shot. You're no Adrien Agreste, but I need you. You are important."

"What does Adrien have to do in all this? How is he so much better than I am?" Chat blushed a little bit, but he hardly realized over his anger and confusion.

"I-I don't know I just thought of somebody perfect! Sorry… Five minutes is probably almost up anyway! Goodbye!"

As they both left to transform back, their whole conversation kept ringing in Chat's ears.

Why did that hurt so much? She said I was perfect but yet I don't feel like she called me perfect. She told me I wasn't as perfect as me. Am I really that different when I'm Chat? Man, shouldn't I be happy about her complimenting me? But I'm not happy, I'm not happy at all.

* * *

Marinette got back to the bakery first, she had gone straight there and transformed back to normal.

"This one wasn't that hard, Tikki. It wasn't easy, but we've fought worse."

"You don't want to talk about the conversation you had with Chat Noir afterwards?"  
"Not really, I think I just need to process what he said for a minute." Instead of stopping there she continued, "I mean, does he really think that he's not important? That's ridiculous! He's Chat freaking Noir, the wielder of the miraculous of destruction!"

"Yeah, but I don't blame him for feeling like that."

"Why not?"

"Well, it does seem like he ends up being influenced by the akuma much more than you."

"Yeah, but that doesn't change his vitality to our fighting."

The bells on the bakery door jingled, Adrien entered.

"Were you mind controlled?" Marinette asked, that was the only reason she could come up with for his later return.

"Yeah, it was pretty weird. What about you?"

"Nah, just stayed here waiting for Ladybug and Chat Noir to save the day."

"Well, they always do."

"And they're really, really good at it."

"...Yeah. They are."

He walked upstairs. Marinette waited a couple minutes and then followed him.

"So… uh… Do you think the wedding went okay?"

"I hope so! Weddings are so special. It sucks that the bride got akumatized."

"Yeah, makes for a great story though."

"Maybe she'll incorporate it into her toast."

They laughed.

"It was fun earlier."

"What?"

"Making the desserts for the wedding. It was fun. You're really nice to be around, Marinette."

"Thank you! I thought it was fun too!"

"Maybe we can do something together sometime that doesn't result in somebody having a meltdown and trying to destroy Paris."

"We can never be too sure here with Hawkmoth." She laughed, and looked at Adrien. It was like the sun was shining right at her but it didn't hurt her eyes. She knew he didn't love her romantically, but being with him was wonderful, no matter what.


	9. Chapter 9: Friends

I'm so sorry that I haven't finished this earlier I've been really busy with school and I still wanted it to be as good as possible! It's too short for the time I took to write it, and it might not be very good, but thanks for waiting and for reading! I really appreciate you all! 3

* * *

Adrien woke up earlier than Marinette most of the time, mainly because of his normal schedule and he was early pretty often, whereas Marinette couldn't wake up on time even if her life depended on it, she was constantly running late. This made their mornings fairly odd in the beginning, but as time went on, they really had started meeting in the middle, they would wake up at the right time, not too early, not too late. But one day, Marinette woke up before Adrien, the sun was shining through her window. She looked over as he was still sleeping. For moral reasons, she didn't want to watch him sleep, but she really, really wanted to. She wasn't particularly an artist but she usually sketched outfits, so she was decent at it. She decided to draw Adrien sleeping, she wanted to engrave the beautiful image in her mind. He looked like an angel, the sun reflecting perfectly off of his soft, golden hair, and shimmering off of his eyelashes. The whole time she thought that she was being a creep, and felt really guilty. Even though she had all those feelings, she did it anyway, _God, _she thought, _he's so beautiful._ It was really just a rough sketch because she got too embarrassed to continue. _Ugh, I'm such a creep. _She set the paper down on her desk and left to go get ready for the day. The sound of the door closing woke Adrien up. He blinked the sun out of his eyes, which was really no use because he was surrounded in it.

He looked up at Marinette's bed and realized she wasn't there, he walked over to her desk and immediately saw the drawing, there were little hearts all over it. _Man, this is so sweet, she's such a sweet girl. I- _he flipped it over to the back, Marinette had written "Oh, how I wish he felt the same way about me." With many hearts around it. _Does-does she really love me, for real, not just out of vanity? No. How could she? __**Why **__would she? _ Adrien just sort of sat there in the room, trying to decide what to think. Should he tell her that he saw the drawing? He had to decide fast because she was going to return soon. _Man, Marinette is a really great girl. And, I mean, I doubt Ladybug will ever love me… _

Before he could finish making his decision, she came back into the room.

"Oh, you're awake!"

"Yeah…"

"What are you holding… Oh no."

"Well, I-"

"I'm SO _so so __**SO**_ sorry! You must think that I'm a _creep!"_ She was terrified, _how could I be so careless? I should've put it away, he's going to hate me!_

"No, I'm just confus-"

Marinette sunk down onto the floor and threaded her hands through her hair.

"Hey, it's okay! I think it's kinda cute!"

Adrien was panicking a bit, he didn't like seeing others upset, and he was afraid she would become akumatized.

"Uh… I like it?! Please, please don't be upset!"

"I just feel so embarrassed!"

"Don't be! So many other fans have done worse. _Way _worse"

"Fans?!"

"That's not what I meant!"

"No! If we're at this point, I need to clarify, I don't just like you because you're pretty. You have a good heart, you're a sweet person and when I look at you I-I, well I just melt a little bit inside, like an ice cream cone sitting out in the sun. You're… you're a warm ball of sunshine, and you _care_ about people." She paused. "And _I _care about _you."_

They stared at each other for what seemed like ages, Marinette still sitting on the floor. Their minds were both spinning for completely different reasons. Marinette couldn't believe what she had just done, and Adrien, well Adrien was just a bit shocked. He didn't know what to feel, or how to feel it. He had somehow gotten it stuck in his mind, that because his father didn't love him, nobody would, and that nobody would look past his looks and fame. He knew that that's what he really needed to hear, and he knew that Marinette probably had no idea how much saying that really meant to him. Adrien knelt down to face level with Marinette, her eyes wide.

"…Thank you." He teared up and his voice wavered, "I really care about you too."

They stared at each other again, this time a sad stare, which neither of them knew why they felt so sad. It was completely silent, a surrounding silence, until their eye contact was broken by the call from Marinette's mother.

"Kids! Breakfast is ready!"

They immediately looked away from each other.

"Well… we shou-"

"Yes! We should go down!"

They laughed slightly and looked at one another awkwardly.

* * *

It was hard for Adrien to pay attention in class, the only thing he could think about is what Marinette said to him, about caring about him for real. He knew that people did, Nino and all his friends at school, his friends from his extracurriculars, even Chloe, but he never really absorbed that they did, having it said to him was like getting slapped in the face. And of course it woke him up, but it still stung, knowing that all these people love him and care about him and yet he still felt so lonely. Granted, not as much as he felt at home, but it was definitely still there. To keep his mind from wandering somewhere about something that he didn't want to think about, Adrien decided to wonder about what Hawkmoth's next plan was going to be. And it wasn't like he was going to be able to pay attention at this point, he didn't even know the topic of the lesson. _I can't imagine that he won't try something big next, what does he have to lose? I hope Ladybug and I are going to be prepared for it, I bet we will. I really hope we will. I'm scared, I'm really really scared. _He didn't realize how far he had zoned out until,

"Adrien? Adrien?"

"What?"

"Didn't you hear the bell ring, c'mon we gotta go."

_I should've listened to the lesson, I'm gonna be so lost tomorrow._ If it was any consolation to Adrien, Marinette had a bit of trouble focusing in class too. She was so busy thinking about how she _actually_ told Adrien the things that she was feeling instead of just chickening out at the last second and making up some excuse as to why she didn't do it. It wasn't anything that she expected, but she never really expected that she'd ever do it.

It probably wasn't any consolation to Adrien at all, she wouldn't be able to explain what happened to him in class when they got back home. Maybe it wasn't very important.

Marinette and Alya left the classroom together,

"I have good news!"

"Oooh? What? Is it about Adrien?" She winked.

"For once, the good news is, yes! I, well, I told him."

"WHAT?! I need all the details?" She hugged her friend, "and by all the details I mean _all the details_."

Marinette relayed the events as well as she possibly could.

"Girl, I never thought you'd do it. I'm so proud of you!" The friends hug. Alya was happy for her friend but she really did wonder, were guys the only important thing in their friendship? It kind of seemed so. _Whatever, everything's good right now. _

"I never really thought it would happen either, and definitely didn't expect it to happen in the way that it did, I can't say that I feel bad about it."

"And you shouldn't! Now, let's go to lunch."

As per usual, the school day was uninteresting for both Adrien and Marinette. The whole day Adrien was thinking about his interaction with Marinette, and about how much he loves Ladybug. Or really, how much of a dream that him and Ladybug was. As the two were walking home,

"Hey, Marinette?"

"What is it, Adrien?"

"I, well, I think that the reason that I never realized my love for you was that I always saw you as only a friend. I really needed a friend. Now I know, I have tons of friends, and you are a great friend… but now I realize you can be so much more, we could be so much mo-"

Loud screams erupted from the distance. Somebody was akumatized.


End file.
